


Don't Pull Rank on the General

by Freedoms_Champion



Series: Butt Out, Ozpin! [2]
Category: RWBY
Genre: Atlas does cloning now, Atlas is cold and Oz hates it, F/M, Gen, Glynda will tell on you without remorse, James Ironwood needs to sleep, M/M, Ozpin worries about everyone, all ships are background - Freeform, no character bashing of any kind
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-29
Updated: 2020-05-29
Packaged: 2021-03-02 18:07:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,446
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24431065
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Freedoms_Champion/pseuds/Freedoms_Champion
Summary: Ozpin once again pokes his nose where it isn't wanted.Maybe James does need some sleep, but he's been up for a good reason. He'll get sleep when he has time, unless he's calling Glynda.
Relationships: Glynda Goodwitch/James Ironwood, Qrow Branwen/Ozpin
Series: Butt Out, Ozpin! [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1764307
Comments: 4
Kudos: 7





	Don't Pull Rank on the General

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading!
> 
> For more information about the baby, check out Carisa_Ironfell's It All Turns Out for the Best. My sister writes pretty good stuff.

General James Ironwood of Atlas had to pinch the bridge of his nose when a gentle chime from his desk showed an incoming call from Professor Ozpin. After four straight hours of paperwork, he really didn’t feel up to another cryptic conversation loaded with not-so subtle jabs at how Atlas was failing Ozpin’s vision for Remnant, but he also couldn’t ignore the call. He took a moment to compose himself and answered.

“Hello, professor.”

“General, I’m calling about a sensitive and urgent matter,” Ozpin said, pressing the tips of his fingers together and leveling a stare at James over them. As always, he looked unruffled, but James got a strange feeling this time.

“I’m not aware of any urgent situations,” James replied. “Has something unexpected happened?”

“Not exactly. I’ve been speaking to Glynda and she tells me that you’ve slept three hours out of the last seventy-two. I know that this is a delicate situation, but I wanted to express my support for you and suggest that you get some rest.”

James couldn’t help it. He dropped his head against his desk and breathed a long sigh.

Maybe he was awfully young to hold the position he did. Maybe he was the newest member of Ozpin’s inner circle, the rookie of the group that protected Remnant from threats the ordinary people couldn’t envision. Maybe he was in over his head on one or two projects. None of that gave Ozpin the right to call him up and tell him to go to bed.

Nothing stopped Ozpin from doing things he didn’t have a right to. Just because he was pretty much the oldest thing in the world, he thought he had the right to run everything just the way he wanted it. James got really sick of it sometimes, particularly when his idea of how to save the world didn’t match Ozpin’s.

“Ozpin, I am perfectly capable of judging my own fitness,” he said, sitting up and composing himself.

“I am aware of that. However, it would be the best for everyone if you came to your duties in the best condition possible. I only wanted to express that to you personally.”

“Yeah, personally,” James muttered under his breath. Most people would consider a personal conversation one that actually took place in person, but Ozpin hated Atlas. It was the only thing that saved James from in-person lectures every other week. Something about the perpetual cold in his home really bothered Ozpin, who never came to Atlas if he could get out of it.

“I beg your pardon?” Ozpin said politely, cocking his head to the side to show he hadn’t heard James. The slight movement shifted his collar and exposed a tiny sliver of purple skin.

James politely replied that he hadn’t said anything important and kept his expression neutral. His mind raced behind the mask, though. Ozpin, like all Huntsmen, had impeccable control of his Aura. His length of experience made sure that his control was better than anyone else in the world, in fact. Additionally, he hardly ever went out in the field, to avoid the risk of his enemies taking a shot at him and disrupting all his plans. So, if Ozpin was bruised, it hadn’t happened by accident.

No one would be getting into Beacon to assassinate him, which meant only one thing: Qrow. James wasn’t sure if knowing that Qrow and Ozpin had gotten carried away was an asset or a reason to gouge out his brain, but he was headmaster of a Huntsman Academy. Gathering intelligence was in the job description. If he could still do it while running on no sleep to speak of, Ozpin had nothing to complain about.

The rest of the call was polite and chilly, and Ozpin quickly disconnected. James heaved a sigh of relief and stood up from his desk. He was stiff from being there so long; his mangled joints were protesting what he’d put them through.

“Cancel the rest of my appointments. Anything that needs my personal attention can sit on my desk until morning,” he said to his aide de camp as he passed through the outer office. He received a crisp salute and returned it as he walked out the door.

He strode through the sterile halls to his own quarters, nodding in response to salutes as he passed other officers and staff. The closer he got to his room, the fewer people he met, as it should be. He would have been highly suspicious of anyone hanging around his room in the middle of a workday.

The heat hit him first when he opened the door. Atlas Academy was kept at a reasonable temperature, though outsiders frequently complained that it was cold. Until recently, James had never felt the need to adjust the temperature settings in his rooms. Things were different now.

At first it had been uncomfortable, but on a day like today, when he was tense, the heat served to forcibly relax him. He sighed and headed for another new addition.

Like most things in Atlas, the crib was white. He’d had a choice between white and grey and chosen white because he found grey impossibly depressing. James couldn’t do much about the uniforms or the walls, but in his own space, he could avoid having a lot of grey.

The baby was sleeping for a change. James smiled and pulled up a chair to sit beside her.

“You know, Ozmaria, I’m going to miss you when it’s time to turn you over to your parents. I didn’t realize how lonely my life has been lately until I had someone to share it with. Most of my friends are in other kingdoms.”

She stirred and turned toward his voice, but still didn’t wake up. James was grateful for that. Ozmaria was the reason he hadn’t been sleeping. She’d cried almost constantly the first time he brought her to his rooms from the lab. It hadn’t taken long before he figured out it was too cold for her and turned up the heat. Ozmaria was like her father in the respect. After that, she settled down a little, but she was still restless and fussy most of the time.

James didn’t mind not being able to sleep, he considered it good training for when a crisis would inevitably keep him awake for days on end. Clearly, though, not everyone agreed with him.

Well, Ozpin would learn what it was like before long. James wanted to make sure Ozmaria was healthy and normal before he told Ozpin and Qrow about what he’d done. When he was sure, she’d meet her parents for the first time.

Maybe some of the science officers had been uneasy when James first proposed this project, but there was no arguing with the results. They had grown a baby from the genetic material he gave them, proving that it was possible. James was proud of that, even though he hadn’t been focused on the bigger ramifications of the project.

He'd just wanted to make his friends’ lives a little brighter.

James smoothed tufts of black and white hair against Ozmaria’s head, remembering the meeting that had started it all. Ozpin had called him to Vale to discuss Grimm activity, fairly routine as things went. Qrow had been his usual self, constantly snarking and undermining everything that anyone suggested. The only thing that made the meeting memorable was the fact that Qrow was, at least officially, babysitting his nieces at the time.

Neither girl could have been more than five years old. The younger one sat in Ozpin’s lap, happily asleep and drooling all over his sleeve. The older girl toddled around the table, knocking into people’s chairs and making tiny fists. James would have complained about the disruption if he hadn’t seen Ozpin’s contented little smile and Qrow’s subtle pride.

Even Yang climbing Qrow’s cape and almost strangling him hadn’t changed the fact that they were obviously having the time of their lives looking after the kids.  
So, James had decided he would give them a child of their own.

Ozmaria opened red eyes like Qrow’s and made a squeaky noise when she saw James. She yawned and grabbed his finger, immediately trying to put it in her mouth.  
James scooped her up and went to the rocking chair by the window – another new addition. He wasn’t sorry he was missing sleep because he wanted to add a little joy to the world, even if Ozpin would look disapproving when he found out.

He was going to have to stop calling Glynda so much, though, if she was going to tell Ozpin on him.


End file.
